Unfortunately, it was a big disappointment. Fame, fortune, and lots of drugs had gone to the heads of the Gallagher brothers, who led the group. It was hard to even tell in the songs on it were good or not, because they were all so overproduced, as well as usually being overly long. They also were early advocates of "brickwalling," making the recording so loud that destroyed the subtlety in the music. Both Gallaghers later admitted that they screwed up with that album. The band continued, and had a lot of success in later years, but they never were as big and as acclaimed as they were before that debacle.
As you can tell, I'm not a fan of "Be Here Now." I plan on posting an alternate version here at a later date. But it turns out the band was still putting out songs that weren't ruined by overproduction, because they were only considered for B-sides and the like. Here's a selection of songs mostly from the "Be Here Now" era that don't include any songs from that album. Personally, I like this album better than that one. Noel Gallagher was still writing high quality songs, so much so that their B-sides were better than many band's A-sides.
The one hit here is "Setting Sun." This technically was released as a Chemical Brothers song featuring Noel Gallagher on lead vocals. But while the Chemical Brothers did put their stamp on the song's production, especially by adding the "Tomorrow Never Knows"-styled drumming, it's an Oasis song. In fact, I've included an early version of this song on the "Take Me" stray tracks album under the name "Coming On Strong."
Most of the songs here are from B-sides, though there are a few exceptions. Note that I didn't include all the B-sides from that era, because some of them were infected by the same problems of the "Be Here Now" album. In the case of "My Sister Lover," I edited it to lop the last couple of minutes off. It's a good song, but way overlong, just like too many of the "Be Here Now" songs.
I believe all the songs are originals, except for a cover of "This Guy's in Love with You" by Bacharach and David.
By the way, I have lots of acoustic versions of Oasis songs, especially from the 1990s. I'm not including any of those here because they'll go on all-acoustic albums instead.
01 Fade Away [Warchild Version] (Oasis)
02 How Does It Feel (Oasis)
03 This Guy's in Love with You (Noel Gallagher with Burt Bacharach)
04 Setting Sun (Chemical Brothers with Noel Gallagher)
05 Angel Child [Demo] (Oasis)
06 Going Nowhere (Oasis)
07 Stay Young (Oasis)
08 My Sister Lover [Edit] (Oasis)
09 Flashbax (Oasis)
10 Untitled Instrumental (Oasis)
https://www.upload.ee/files/15908979/Osis_1995-1997_SettngSun_atse.zip.html
For the cover, I used the cover to the "Setting Sun" single. But this is an Oasis album, and that was technically a Chemical Brothers release. So I pasted the Oasis logo over the Chemical Brothers name.
Thanks for sharing. I too was disappointed by 'Be Here Now', especially after 'Setting Sun' (still the best track either Noel or Liam has ever been involved with).
ReplyDeleteReally appreciate coming across your blog today! You're a man after my own heart, I've put together all sorts of compilations along your line, usually aiming for CD or double-CD artist or sessions comps and occasionally doing a bit of far less extensive audio editing than your efforts.
ReplyDeleteA couple of things: Be Here Now is really pretty good, in addition to a nostalgic favorite, think of it as the logical conclusion of the previous two albums getting back to the wall of sound on Definitely Maybe. Give it another chance, D'You Know What I Mean, Don't Go Away, and All Around The World are some of their best.
I assume based on the Oasis that you know the Verve? Reshuffling their already long Urban Hymns with the many b-sides and outtakes from the torturous recording sessions is a favorite pastime of Britpop fans. Would be curious to see your take.
Have been honing my "what should have been" version of Before The Flood, look forward to seeing what you've done for that (and what Sony does just to preserve the copyright)!
Glad you like the blog. Re: Be Here Now, I think if it would have been recorded in 1995, it would have been fine. But the band members were so full of themselves (and cocaine) that they went too far. For instance, making a song that really should have been 4 minutes long 9 minutes long.
ReplyDeleteI must say I've never really gotten into the Verve. I don't know many of their songs, other than a few hits.
To each their own, the sheer hugeness is the point! But can't blame you for not giving Be Here Now more time to get under your skin when you're juggling a zillion other artists and albums. (N.B. My Big Mouth, Don't Go Away and Be Here Now are all around five reasonably concise minutes...)
ReplyDeleteHad to plug The Verve, one of my favorite bands. Have tended to find that classic rock fans find them more accessible/less irritating than Oasis, Radiohead and other 90s British acts. Do you like any of their approximate contemporaries like Happy Mondays, the Stone Roses, Primal Scream, etc?
Anyhow, keep up the good work! Your erudition and efforts are much appreciated.
Generally speaking, I'm not into hugeness and bombast. I prefer a simple acoustic style. The good news is that Oasis did a lot of that. I plan to post a series of acoustic albums for them. The only thing holding me up is finding photos of them playing acoustic guitar for the album covers. If you have good ones along those lines, please let me know.
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ReplyDeleteLink fixed.
Deleteawesome, thank you
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